In this post I’ll go through all the procedures the various documents needed pre-departure, during transit and upon arrival at Melbourne.
Note: This is based on my experience and may not reflect what occurs during your trip. Quarantine/isolation and testing requirements do change based on the COVID situation and it is advised that you check the Victorian Government website for the latest updates before your flight.
Pre-Departure
In order to utilize the VTL there are several documents which need to be prepared. It is highly recommended that these documents be printed out.
- Vaccination Certificate
- Available for download via the Notarise Website.
- Australian Travel Declaration
- Required to be completed at least 72 hours before departure.
- International Passenger Arrival Permit
- Arrivals into Victoria require an arrival permit.
- Negative PCR Test
- Taken within 72 hours of your flight. You can book an appointment at any MOH-Approved Covid 19 Test Providers
Check In/Transit
At check in we were asked to present physical proof of our vaccine certificate and the negative pre-departure PCR test. Everything else occurs as per usual
Upon boarding the flight we were also given an Australian Travel Declaration Card to declare any items being brought into the country.
Arrival
Within 24 hours of arrival we were required to either take a PCR or take a RAT (Rapid Antigen Test) test and isolate until we returned a negative result.
Another PCR/RAT test is required to be taken between days 5 and 7 of arrival.
RAT/ART (Rapit Antigen Test)
Currently RAT kits are sold out in all chemists and pharmacists in Melbourne. I would highly recommend bringing your own kits from Singapore in order to avoid the hassle.
PCR Testing
While PCR tests in Melbourne are free the current surge of omicron has resulted in large waves of people lining outside testing sites waiting to get tested. It takes 3-4 hours of waiting in line before even setting foot inside the testing center.
If you are required to take a PCR Test my suggestion would be to queue up at your nearest testing site before open hours.
The last thing that needs to be done after arriving is setting up the Service Victoria App.
Service Victoria App
Melbourne’s TraceTogether App. It allows you to check in at stores and acts as proof of your vaccination status. In order to set it up you need to have your vaccine certificate uploaded.
IHI/myGov
As international students we don’t have access to Medicare so we had to upload our COVID-19 certificates using the Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI).
The quickest way to get an IHI is online through your myGov account. If you don’t have an account, it’s easy to create one.
After creating your myGov account follow these steps to get an IHI online:
- Sign in to myGov
- Select services or link your first service.
- Select IHI service from the list
- Follow the prompts to get your IHI, and link the service.
Uploading your vaccine certificate
After getting our IHI we needed to find a pharmacist/chemist/GP who was able to upload our Vaccination Certificates onto the IHI.
Any place which does vaccinations should be able to upload the certificates. For us we chose to go to the Chemist Warehouse on Elizabeth Street where we paid a $10 service fee for the upload.
We were required to present:
- Our passports
- The vaccination certificates
- Personal IHI numbers
After the certificates were uploaded we were then able to add our digital certificates to the Service Victoria App.
Log onto your myGov account using a browser on your phone
Select the ‘Individual Healthcare Identifiers’ service
Select ‘View immunisation history’ on the ‘Immunisation history’ tile.
Tap ‘Share with check-in app’.
Tap ‘Service Victoria’
Check out the full steps here
After uploading the vaccine certificates our vaccination status would now be shown whenever we checked into a venue. We were finally be able to leave our passports and physical vaccine certificates at home :)